Bringing attention to preventable car crash tragedies, a display in the Capitol rotunda in Madison this month tells the stories of just three of the 240 victims over a three-year period in Milwaukee. Jessica Wineberg is the city’s Vision Zero policy director. “It happens to 500 families in Wisconsin approximately every year,” Wineberg said. “We hope that by connecting with these stories, people remember that they can take some personal action and politically we can take action to have safer roads.”

The display highlights just some of the crashes that took the lives of Milwaukee residents, as initially reported by the weekly Shepard Express last November.

Wineberg explained Vision Zero, a multinational effort to reduce the tragic trend of deaths. “Vision Zero is the goal of zero traffic deaths on our roadways, and it really is an ethical idea that is the only acceptable goal, and everyone involved with transportation should be working together.”

LISTEN – Milwaukee Vision Zero Director Jessica Wineberg: 

While there’s a role for traffic engineers and law enforcement, much of the responsibility rests with drivers. “It’s not that you have to do something super difficult as an individual,” Wineberg said. “You need to follow the speed limit and drive sober. It’s that easy.”

In addition to the Vision Zero effort in Milwaukee, the initiative has also been adopted in Madison, where the recent death of a high school student who was struck and killed in a crosswalk has galvanized the South Madison neighborhood. The Car Crash Tragedy display will be in the rotunda though March 26.